By NICK BILTON and MIKE ISAAC

June 28, 2014

Living in San Francisco is a predictable affair. Each day you awake to layers of fog, the temperature is always the same, and as you travel the city, you bump into one tech-related thing after another.

Twenty-somethings working on MacBook laptops jockeying for power outlets in a crowded cafe. Entrepreneurs on street corners pitching venture capitalists about their new photo-filter apps. And people talking about tech everywhere: at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and even in bathrooms.

Nick Bilton and Mike Isaac, who both left the Bay Area this month — Mr. Bilton moving to Los Angeles and Mr. Isaac to New York — reflect on their time living in a land of driverless cars, drones and billionaire entrepreneurs:

Nick Bilton: So how long did you live in the Bay Area?

Mike Isaac: For a while! About 10 years, give or take.

Nick: Wow. That’s a long time. I lasted three years to the day before I escaped via a driverless car (I’m kidding).

Nick: Not really. I always felt that San Francisco was a bit too techie, even for me.

So, over the past 10 years, what was the strangest tech-related thing you experienced?

Mike: Hmm. I think when I first started to cover tech, it was mind-blowing to experience an Apple or a Google developer conference.

You have these throngs of unshowered, stereotypically nerdy people lined up outside Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Then all of a sudden, the clock strikes 10 a.m., and they stampede into the auditorium, all vying for the best seat to see guys like Sundar Pichai and Larry Page talk about A.P.I.s or something like that.

It’s nuts.

Nick: Oh, yes. “The Running of the Nerds,” as we call it. I agree, to me that is still incredibly bizarre. I think the strangest thing I witnessed was the way technology pervades every part of the city. I recently went to meet a friend who is a venture capitalist for a coffee at Sightglass, the local coffee shop, and he came barreling out of the cafe before I even had a chance to walk inside.

“What’s up?” I asked him, as he told me, sternly, we weren’t having coffee there.

“I was just standing in line behind two entrepreneurs that couldn’t be more than 19 years old and they were giving each other advice on how to fire people and run a company,” he said in a defeated tone.

Mike: Wow. At 19, I could barely balance a checkbook. Now I don’t even know if checkbooks exist anymore.

I think what strikes me is just how many things I find completely normalized that others just visiting are struck by.

Remember driving down the 101 freeway and looking at all the billboards? It seemed like every other advertisement was a recruiting pitch to young engineers. I got used to it, but my friends from out of town were baffled.

Nick: It’s interesting because I was in San Francisco last week and I walked past a driverless car. Then, a few minutes later, at the New York Times bureau, a drone hovered outside, taking pictures. In most cities in America, this would make it onto the 7 o’clock news, but in San Francisco, it’s just normal.

Mike: It’s like “Blade Runner” lite.

So let’s be fair for a second. What will you actually miss about the place? I’m already missing the weather. New York is disgustingly hot.

Nick: You know, for all the bizarreness and overly tech-drenched culture, it really is amazing to see the future being invented right before your eyes. I remember seeing Uber for the first time, when it was just a few black sedans. Now it’s changing the entire global taxi industry. I remember my jaw dropping open in the offices of Planet Labs, a San Francisco aerospace start-up, which is launching 100 small satellites into orbit this year, where they will photograph the Earth every single day. And I remember being in the room when Steve Jobs announced the iPad.

Mike: That’s cool. And even though you didn’t know how big it was going to be at the time, you can say, “I was there when tablets really started to go mainstream.”

Plus, where else can I walk into a cafe or something and see the creator behind the next big app?

I ran into Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mikey Krieger at the movie theater on the opening day of “The Dark Knight Rises.” It was a trip.

Nick: All that being said, and for all the good tech has done for San Francisco, it was difficult to watch the way the wealth has hurt the city, too. For example, I was told by a Google executive that the woman who protested during Google I/O this week had actually been evicted from her home. After the protester stormed the event, causing an excitable stir, she sat outside crying, explaining that she couldn’t afford to find a new home in the city.

Mike: That’s awful. And I agree, all the change hasn’t come without cost or pushback.

Remember the Google Glass bar fight thing that blew up a few months ago? It’s this weird culture clash; on the one hand, we have people who want to build things that defy convention. And on the other, we’ve got regular San Francisco natives, fearful of people with face computers and other sorts of experimental products. It’s fertile ground for conflict.

Nick: Absolutely right. So of all the companies and all the people or companies you’ve covered in the valley, which one were you most impressed by? For me, I think it’s been Mark Zuckerberg. I’ve watched him grow up over the past several years and become an adept chief executive who makes decisions and doesn’t care about what other people think. Too many people here are worried about the press backlash. He just goes with his gut.

Mike: For me, it has to be Twitter.

I remember when it was a group of a few dozen people working on keeping the wheels on the whole thing from falling off. And when we both started writing about Twitter, it seemed like every other day greeted me with another “fail whale” of downtime.

Now, despite all of its faults — and as you know, there are many — it’s a publicly traded company with a quarter of a billion people using it. And honestly, I can’t remember the last time it went down. (Maybe the Ellen selfie?)

Nick: So, any parting words for San Francisco?

Mike: I will never forget your beautiful fog. And layers. Always dress in layers.

Any parting words for you?

Nick: Yeah, a few weeks ago I was flying a drone over the bay and it accidentally dropped into the water. If anyone finds it, please send it to me in Los Angeles. Kthxbye!